Riddle Riddle? Let’s see if you can answer this riddle correctly. An ex-police officer lost his house, his car, and his girlfriend. What did he lose first?
Most people would say that he lost his job first. He’s an ex-police after all. Well, it’s incorrect. Why? Because we don’t know how he became an ex-police officer. It could be that he resigned from his position, or he probably went on retirement. Definitely not the job he lost first. Can you guess the correct answer now? You’re right. He lost his house first.
You see, the answer is so easy, yet most of you had it wrong initially. Can you guess the reason?
It’s because you were thinking too much. Since it’s a riddle, we all want to come out as intelligent and smart. Therefore, we overanalyzed the question and ended up with the wrong answer.
We can liken this situation to the kind of problems we face in our lives. Most of our problems have answers embedded in them. But then thanks to our natural tendencies to feed our ego by proving ourselves smart and intelligent, we tend to overthink situations, make wrong analyses, and then end up with the wrong solution.
What, then, could we do now to avoid making such minor mistakes in our lives?
The answer is simple. Go Slow! You may have already heard of the story of the tortoise and the hare. You see, the hare could have easily won the race because it is faster than the tortoise. But then the tortoise won the race, all thanks to the hare’s over-intelligence. By being in haste to prove our intelligence, we get ahead of ourselves, make mistakes, and then thwart our own success.
As the adage puts it, “the slower you go, the sooner you’ll get there”. So the next time you face a problem, don’t think too much. Take it easy, go slow, and then you’ll realize that the solution was much easier and simpler than you imagined.
If you liked this article, kindly share it with your friends, colleagues, and those in your network. Also, feel free to contact me whenever your company is looking for a writer, or probably when you or someone you know needs a writer to work on a project for them. You can send me an email directly at abadede98@gmail.com. It’ll mean a lot to me if you do any of the above.